Cebu, Philippines Holidays For Singles: Everything You Need To Know

If you ever find your­self con­tem­plat­ing what hol­i­days for sin­gles in the Philip­pines would be like, don’t try the obvi­ous route to Mani­la, the country’s cap­i­tal. Too passé and pop­u­lat­ed. One vaca­tion spot that is quick­ly gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty among sin­gle males is Cebu City, the country’s first cap­i­tal.

Locat­ed on the south­ern part of the Philip­pines, the cap­i­tal of Cebu Island is not what you would call a spec­tac­u­lar tourist haven. But it is this short­com­ing that also makes it such an ide­al sin­gles hol­i­day spot.

The peo­ple are friend­ly, the taxi dri­vers trust­wor­thy. The beach­es are not touristy (yet), and most oth­er attrac­tion sites are uncon­t­a­m­i­nat­ed. It’s a vibrant, fast-paced city, but get­ting around is easy. It lives up to (even exceeds) the mar­ket­ing pam­phlets’ hype.

As a norm, the women are so gen­uine and charm­ing they will steal your heart. And best of all, those extor­tion­ist prices for every­thing from a sim­ple drink to accom­mo­da­tion are yet to find their way here. In a word, Cebu is c’est beau (two words actu­al­ly).

Dating Women in Cebu

What Women in Cebu are Like

When it comes to women in Philip­pines, it’s an acknowl­edged fact that it’s eas­i­est to find the most beau­ti­ful, polite, and fun-lov­ing Fil­ip­inas in Cebu than in the oth­er big cities. While they are not the most volup­tuous girls in the world, their beau­ty is untar­nished and they are known for treat­ing men (espe­cial­ly for­eign­ers) like roy­al­ty.

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Most of these Vir­gin Mary types will want to know if you’re mar­ried, and it’s just a way of telling if they can forge a rela­tion­ship with you. In case you’re inter­est­ed, they take loy­al­ty on their part as an oath (the unbreak­able old-fash­ioned kind). But if mar­riage isn’t on your radar, hov­er­ing around the small­er towns and vil­lages should guar­an­tee a catch or two (even for free) you’ll won­der if you real­ly are in Asia.

Booking.com

Best Places to meet Women in Cebu

Nightlife in Cebu is a haven for the sin­gle male. Things start rock­ing right after 8pm and pound till the morn­ing dur­ing the week­ends or until 3am on week­days.

When it comes to nightlife, three ways you can have a swell time, depend­ing on your pref­er­ences: bars and lounges, clubs, and sport­ing hous­es.

It’s com­mon knowl­edge that bars and clubs are the go-to spots for pick­ing up women, regard­less of the place. So on top of guar­an­teed women, the fol­low­ing are some of the spots you can be guar­an­teed a good time:

The Bars

The bar con­cept hasn’t real­ly caught on in Cebu and water­ing holes where you can just enjoy your drink with qui­et con­ver­sa­tion aren’t a very com­mon fea­ture. But they are more than suf­fi­cient to make your stay worth the while. They include:

• The El Gecko Resto­bar which offers amaz­ing inter­na­tion­al del­i­ca­cies.
• The Vine City Wine Bar & Restau­rant across the bridge in neigh­bor­ing Mac­tan Island is per­fect for those nights when you need a more laid­back atmos­phere to go with serv­ings of pas­ta, steak, sal­ads and a great wine selec­tion.
• The Jazz n Bluz offers a more sophis­ti­cat­ed ambi­ence and doesn’t close until the last cus­tomer leaves.
• The incred­i­ble Sin­ners and Saints Retro­bar on Ban­i­lad Road is a must. This one has bar­men dressed up as dev­ils and the bar­girls as cute angels, with great local live bands to com­ple­ment the food.

By the way, Fil­ipinos love karaoke more than any­one else. So don’t be shocked if a mic is shoved in your hand. Just go and belt out your tunes because Cebua­nas – and Fil­ipinos in gen­er­al – aren’t judg­men­tal when it comes to karaoke.

The Clubs

As with the bars, Cebu doesn’t flaunt hun­dreds of clubs like oth­er big­ger met­ros, but that is not to mean there is a short­age. Some of the hippest hap­pen­ing joints in town include:

• The Dis­tillery: Locat­ed on Ban­i­lad Road, The Dis­tillery is a har­bor for par­ty ani­mals and liquor con­nois­seurs where the in vogue go to hang out. There is an abun­dance of import­ed alco­holic bev­er­ages rang­ing from beers to hard liquors whose names you can’t even wrap your tongue around.
• LIV Super Club: It may not be Club LIV in Mia­mi where hiphop stars hang out but the Cebu ver­sion is res­olute on main­tain­ing a sim­i­lar stature. It is humon­gous and you have to be frisked twice before gain­ing entry into the largest lux­u­ry club in Cebu. You’ll part with an entrance fee but odd­ly, most drinks are less cost­ly than in oth­er less posh estab­lish­ments.
• Alchol­o­gy: Alchol­o­gy is one of those clubs in every city in the world that may not have the best crowd or the best music, but are famous for get­ting it on any day of the week, Mon­days includ­ed. There are no pre­ten­sions here and admis­sion and drinks are pock­et-friend­ly.
• DEN (Cebu IT Park): The name itself betrays the type of crowd you’re like­ly to find here – younger, trendi­er, rich­er demo­graph­ic. The glitzy high-end club is unpar­al­leled in terms of best music and often has the sick­est DJs (local or inter­na­tion­al) man­ning the decks.

But if you want to cut to the chase and let the green do the talk­ing, Cebu is not short of plea­sure hous­es. Go ahead and pro­mote the tourism and local econ­o­my.

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The Bor­del­los

Hol­i­days for sin­gles in Cebu aren’t com­plete with­out a taste of the city’s best asset, Cebu girls.

When hunt­ing for the best crop, you have an ample selec­tion of Go-Go Bars from which to choose the best cut. Man­go Avenue is the red-light dis­trict in Cebu and a cab should get you there pron­to. But beware of the pimps who’re out to fleece you.

Arranged in no par­tic­u­lar order, you should spot Temp­ta­tions, BG Biki­ni Bar (BG’s), Viking Man­go Bar (Vikings), J Ave, Plan­et X, Eric the Red, Sis­ters, Love City and Dim­ples. The num­ber of hous­es on the street is quadru­ple this, but these will give you val­ue for your buck.

The girls are not racist, only pre­fer­ring the green, and it’s fair­ly cheap – $35–70 a pop, save for those at Club Tokyo who strict­ly cater to Japanese/ Kore­an.

The expe­ri­enced should know hous­es of ill repute fall out of favor reg­u­lar­ly so the advice is to have a quick drink in 2 or 3 as you sur­vey the hottest peach­es ready to attend to His Majesty’s every whim.

Other Ways to meet Women in Cebu

Malls are oth­er great places to source some fresh cuts, and in par­tic­u­lar the sprawl­ing SM and Ayala malls stand out. Whether inside or out, there is a lot of action going on around those malls. The perv in you should avoid girls your con­science thinks are under­age because that right there is jail bait.

Robinson’s Mall is anoth­er great hookup spot where you’ll have the hot­ties swoon­ing over you, night or day.

The famed Cebu IT Park is anoth­er hide­out for girls and a per­fect place to lay the traps. Classy, work­ing (non-sex jobs) women hang out around here often. These ones will expect more, so it’s good to arm your­self with a bit of Fil­ipino cul­ture. If she’s into you, this will be triple kill for you: get laid, win her heart, and girls in Cebu have been known to spoil men with gifts.

You can also meet beau­ti­ful Cebua­nas on online dat­ing sites. A great idea is to start chat­ting with them before you arrive and meet with them face to face once you are in Cebu.

Fun Things to Do in Cebu

There is more to Cebu than just beau­ti­ful women, bars and clubs.

The island is regard­ed as one of the most stun­ning in the world thanks to its amaz­ing sun, turquoise waters, white-pow­dered sands, and clear-blue skies. To get the most out of it, how­ev­er, you’ll need to get out of the city.

But that shouldn’t be an incon­ve­nience because it’s strate­gi­cal­ly posi­tioned as a launch base. Whether you want to go by road, bik­ing to your des­ti­na­tion or try a new expe­ri­ence by tak­ing a fer­ry, Cebu gives you options.

Here then, are some top activ­i­ties to add more spice to your mem­o­rable sojourn.

Beach­es

The beach­es of Cebu are what you would call the per­fect epit­o­me of sprawl­ing white sands with invit­ing turquoise waters.

The best beach­es are just a few hours’ dri­ve from the city (aver­age 2 hours) and the ones that are def­i­nite­ly worth a look include: Moal­boal, Dalaguete, Alogu­in­san, Liloan, Danao, Minglanil­la, and Ban­tayan.

Scu­ba Div­ing & Snor­kel­ing

Cebu offers a lot of great div­ing places (cheap ones at that) which range from coral reefs to ship­wrecks. And in case you always want­ed an Open Water Div­er Cer­tifi­cate, then you’re grac­ing one of the cheap­est places you can get one in South East Asia.

For the best snor­kel­ing expe­ri­ence, try the neigh­bor­ing island of Olan­go (and its 6 small satel­lite islands) where you can also observe migra­to­ry birds.

Xtreme Rides

You remem­ber Robinson’s Mall, right? Stand­ing just a few blocks away is the tallest build­ing in the city, the Crown Regency Cebu.

You can get a 360-degree view of the island from atop, and if you’re a thrill junkie, the apt­ly-named Sky Expe­ri­ence Adven­ture is just the place to feel the rush. You can take the zip wire which sus­pends you 473ft off the ground as you ‘fly’ from Tow­er 1 to Tow­er 3, or the roller­coast­er-like Edge Coast­er ride which gets you around the rim of the build­ing (on the 41st floor).

All for just a rea­son­able fee.

Sin­u­log Fes­ti­val

On the third Sun­day of Jan­u­ary every year, one of the grand­est fes­ti­vals in the Philip­pines brings peo­ple from all cor­ners of the coun­try to the shores of Cebu. This is basi­cal­ly a thanks­giv­ing event to hon­or the San­ta Niño, the old­est deity in the Philip­pines.

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Mas­sages

Cebu City is not short of mas­sage par­lors and spas with top-notch ther­a­pists. You can even throw in a lit­tle more for ‘extra ser­vice’, but this will depend on the place.

Some of the most out­stand­ing Cebu par­lors are Alibyo Bou­tique Spa, Prana Medis­pa, Yo-Bi Spa, Nuat Thai Foot & Body Mas­sage, Wat Pho Tra­di­tion­al Thai Mas­sage, Mont Albo Mas­sage Hut, and the Café Tiala.

Sport

Soc­cer is quite pop­u­lar in the Philip­pines, but prob­a­bly not as much as bas­ket­ball. It’s hard to walk down a street and not find a hoop.

You can play or watch match­es via satel­lite in the bars. The Ban­i­lad Sports Club (non-mem­ber­ship) is a per­fect place to enjoy some ten­nis.

Must Try Food in Cebu

Lechon

Cebu is home to the tasti­est lechon in the Philip­pines, a pop­u­lar dish that involves slow-roast­ing suck­ling pigs (piglets?) over a fire for hours. The end prod­uct is a sump­tu­ous, ten­der serv­ing that’s crispy on the out­side but juicy on the inside.

Sutuk­il

Anoth­er native must-have dish, Sutuk­il is the ulti­mate seafood expe­ri­ence in Cebu.

The name is actu­al­ly a syn­onym for three dish­es: the Sugba (most­ly grilled fish), Tula (a veg­etable soup), and Kilaw (raw fish soaked in vine­gar con­tain­ing gin­ger, onions, toma­toes and lemons). The Sutuk­il expe­ri­ence involves buy­ing the seafood raw and fresh before hav­ing an eatery pre­pare it for you.

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Ribs at Casa Verde

Casa Verde is a chain of restau­rants scat­tered across the city and famous for offer­ing the best baked pork ribs splat­tered with a sweet, tangy piquet sauce. It’s a best sell­er and taboo to leave Cebu with­out try­ing them out, veg­an or not (prob­a­bly not the veg­an).

How to Get to Cebu

There are var­i­ous ways you can gain entry to the city.

By Plane

If you’re fly­ing from abroad, fly­ing in is the most con­ve­nient. You will touch down at the Mac­tan-Cebu Inter­na­tion­al Air­port which is locat­ed just 15km east of the city.

By Boat

If time is on your side, you can take a boat which is a pop­u­lar alter­na­tive giv­en the city is the busiest domes­tic port in the Philip­pines, hold­ing a lit­tle less than 80 per­cent of the nation’s pas­sen­ger ves­sels.

A search on Expe­dia should give you an idea where to catch a flight depend­ing on your loca­tion.

Where to Stay in Cebu

The best places for vis­i­tors to stay are cen­tered around two loca­tions:

Near Ayala Mall

You’ll rarely find bet­ter accom­mo­da­tion than in the vicin­i­ty of Ayala Mall: clean, great ameni­ties, secure, prox­im­i­ty to hang­out joints, and easy and cheap to get around. All this at afford­able prices.

Fuente Osme­na

There are many hotels to choose from in Fuente area, a very decent place unri­valed for its prox­im­i­ty to the nightlife spots (and great ameni­ties), yet the accom­mo­da­tion has man­aged to remain rea­son­ably low over the years.

There are hun­dreds of hotels in these two loca­tions. Find a good hotel using Booking.com. For com­fort­able and afford­able hotels in Cebu we rec­om­mend:

• Quest Cebu
• Man­darin Plaza
• Cebu City Mar­riott Hotel
• Cebu Park­lane Inter­na­tion­al

Cebu as a des­ti­na­tion hol­i­day for sin­gle men is a fan­tas­tic par­adise. There are so many unbe­liev­able attrac­tions to enjoy at rea­son­able prices it may sound like a lie when you do get back home and tell your tales. Cou­ple that with beau­ti­ful Fil­ip­inas and you’ll get to savor what a trop­i­cal par­adise would actu­al­ly feel like – right here on earth.

Have you been to Cebu? What are your thoughts on it for a sin­gles hol­i­day?